Motion Picture Academy reveals 2020 Student Academy winners; short films will be Oscar-eligible

The 2020 winners join the ranks of such past Student Academy Award winners as Patricia Cardoso, Pete Docter, Cary Fukunaga, Spike Lee, Trey Parker, Patricia Riggen and Robert Zemeckis

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted 18 students as winners of the 47th Student Academy Awards® competition.  This year, the Student Academy Awards competition received a total of 1,474 entries from 207 domestic and 121 international colleges and universities.  

The  gold, silver, and bronze medal placements in the seven student award categories will be revealed in a virtual program on October 21.

The winners are (listed alphabetically by category):

Alternative/Experimental (Domestic and International Film Schools)
Curry Sicong Tian, “Simulacra,” University of Southern California

Animation (Domestic Film Schools)
Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma, “Ciervo,” Rhode Island School of Design
Daniela Dwek, Maya Mendonca and Chrisy Baek, “Hamsa,” School of Visual Arts
Kate Namowicz and Skyler Porras, “Mime Your Manners,” Ringling College of Art & Design

Animation (International Film Schools)
Pascal Schelbli, “The Beauty,” Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany)

Documentary (Domestic Film Schools)
Allison A. Waite, “The Dope Years: The Story of Latasha Harlins,” University of Southern California
Laura Zéphirin, “Making Waves,” New York University
Yucong Chen, “Unfinished Lives,” University of Southern California

Documentary (International Film Schools)
Maren Klakegg, “Dear Father…,” Westerdals Institute of Film and Media, Kristiania University College (Norway) 

Narrative (Domestic Film Schools)
Karishma Dube, “Bittu,” New York University
Rommel Villa Barriga, “Sweet Potatoes,” University of Southern California
Talia Smith, “Umama,” New York University

Narrative (International Film Schools)
Percival Argüero Mendoza, “Crescendo,” Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (Mexico)
Marie Mc Court, “I Was Still There When You Left Me,” Institut des Arts de Diffusion (Belgium) 
German Golub, “My Dear Corpses,” Baltic Film & Media School, Tallinn University (Estonia) 

First-time honors go to Baltic Film & Media School, Tallinn University, Estonia, and Institut des Arts de Diffusion, Belgium. 

All Student Academy Award-winning films are eligible to compete for 2020 Oscars® in the Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film or Documentary Short Subject category.  Past winners have gone on to receive 64 Oscar® nominations and have won or shared 13 awards.  The medal placements – gold, silver and bronze – in the seven award categories will be revealed in a virtual program highlighting the winners and their films on Wednesday, October 21. 

The Student Academy Awards were established in 1972 to provide a platform for emerging global talent by creating opportunities within the industry to showcase their work.  

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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